CALABASH PAINTING ON CANVAS

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a design of calabash on canvas with a view of demonstrating the beauty and culture of the nomadic Fulani’s in northern Nigerian. The project portrays much on plants and its surrounding nature.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Gourds or calabashes, whether decorated or not, basically fulfill practical functions in the day-to-day activities of the pastoral Fulani women. Cut into containers of various shapes and sizes, they are used for serving food, for milking cattle and as carrier vessels. However, the decorated ones have additional value. They are highly prized objects of aesthetic value.

Whether kept together as treasures in kaakel pack or loaded on oxen and donkey backs on a journey, or proudly displayed outside the hut during ceremonies, decorated calabashes have prestigious and aesthetic properties. Used as containers for food, they embellish the service; as tools in the dairy woman’s trade, they help to attract customers, thereby performing some economic functions. And as indicated earlier, they are also an extension of the seller’s appearance and therefore an aid to personal beauty. Decorated calabashes are so highly valued by nomadic Fulani women that they consider them as worthy presents to their daughters during marriage, the valuable equipment to start them off in their new social role.

The practical as well as the aesthetic values of the Fulani nomads decorated calabashes are irrespective of whether the calabashes are decorated by the nomads themselves as in the northeastern part of Nigeria and the Cameroons, or for them by their sedentary neighbors as in Hausa land. But where the calabashes are decorated by the Fulani for their own use, the calabashes have yet some additional artistic value; the decorations on them are the Fulani’s’ only graphic expressions, the truest representation of their artistic skill and vision. This is the case in northeastern Nigeria, where despite the presence of a great variety of designs produced by their neighbors like the Terra, Pahir, Guanda, Yugur, Bata and the sedentary Fulani of Adamawa, the nomads only use calabashes decorated to their own distinctive taste by their fellow nomads.

The decorators are mainly women which further show that the calabashes are decorated by the users. In Adamawa, they are said by Chappell to be among the Wodaabe group and they decorate calabashes for other Fulani groups like the Jafun and the Daneji. Their tools, techniques and styles of work are also pointed out as being different from those of their neighbors, for they use cold tools to engrave their designs while other peoples around them take mostly to pyro-engravings and poker works which are considered modern as opposed to the old-fashioned Fulani nomads’ only technique.

Basically all the designs of the Fulani nomads are combinations of various abstract motifs like circles, squares, triangles and lines sometimes simple, broken or wavy which according to Jest are highly valued by the Fulani of the Cameroons.

The geometrical motifs are deeply appreciated by the Fulbe. The circles, triangles and lagged lines are reproduced on the walls of their huts, materials and pottery designs. This geometrical pattern is certainly an expression of the deep preoccupations of their intellect

Besides northeastern Nigeria, where each ethnic group decorates calabashes for the use of its members, there are still some other notable calabash decoration traditions in Nigeria. The Hausa, the Yoruba of Oyo, and the Tiv all decorate calabashes. In fact, calabash decoration is likely to be a very old craft in the country because there is evidence that the makers of Igbo Ukwu bronze objects (c. A.D. 850) made use of calabashes, pieces of which have been found buried with some metal handles. The designs on the cast yaetal representations of half calabashes cormon in Igbo Ukwu archaeological finds are also suggestive of ornamental designs of some crafts, possibly calabash decorations. In some ways the designs of all these other Nigerian calabash decorations are similar while the nomadic Fulani decorations of northeast are distinctive.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Although canvas is undoubtedly the most popular and preferred medium of painters today, the use of canvas for paintings was not widespread until the Renaissance, particularly in 16th century Venice. Until that time, oil painting had been executed primarily on wooden panels. But in the damp climate of the watery city of Venice, the wooden panels tended to deteriorate, necessitating a new medium which could tolerate the presence of moisture over time. The use of canvas that was properly prepared to prevent deterioration and stretched on a wooden frame was seen as a solution for oil paintings and dramatically changed the nature of paintings and their execution.

The word canvas is derived from the Latin word “cannabis” and has existed as a fabric since ancient times. Canvas can be composed of hemp, flax or cotton. The flax plant is the source of linen. The fibers of linen are round and give the fabric and irregular texture and therefore a very natural and random look that is highly prized by artists. The natural presence of linseed oil in the plant preserves the fibers and keeps them flexible. Canvases composed of hemp and of linen are virtually indistinguishable from each other with the naked eye but since linen was the more costly of the two due to the difficulty of processing it, hemp was quite popular among artists for whom cost mattered until the end of the 18th century.

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this project is to bring to the general public the beauty of calabash beauty and its economic advantages to the nation. To promote the use of calabash and their producers, it also helps to promote the tradition of the nomadic Fulani’s in Nigeria.

1.3 DEFINITION OF TERMS

CANVAS: A strong heavy rough fabric used by artists for painting.

PRIMING: The application of an absorbent coating or “ground” to the canvas that provides a surface to which the paint can adhere.

EMBOSSING: To put a raised design or piece of wrting on paper, leather, etc

PAINTING: A picture that has been painted

FRAME: A strong border or structure of wood, metal, etc. that holds a picture, door, or piece of glass in position.

CALABASH PAINTING ON CANVAS

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